[Steven Stahlberg]

Scanned the pencil sketch and painted over it in Photoshop, took a little more than one working day. C&C?

[SolarC]

Nice one! Everything seems to be rendered really well. Warm colors of the clouds with the blue sky gives the picture a nice mystical but maybe a bit unnatural feeling. This effect reminds me of some scifi book covers with a bit similar skies. Not that it would be a bad thing at all. =)

[Lunatique]

Hey, been a while since your last 2D post!

The most obvious one I see is the underside of her breasts--there's no "line" from them being pressed to her chest?

But lovely work!

[Sumaleth]

Wow, that's very Maxfield Parish.

Comments? Hmm, I'm not overly keen on the arch - the style or the rendering I'm not sure - and the girl doesn't look "real" but in this case that might work in it's favor.
_________________
Art Links Archive -- Artists and Tutorials

[zap.br]

very very nice

i love the 'dancing water' effect
and is a very very nice expression

reminds me some heavy metal cd Covers

very nice

_________________
Brasil GFX POWER
zhp

[Popeye]

Hey Steven, I have been keeping my eyes on your stuff for three years and i really like your art a lot.

Anyway here are my comments,

I think the way she bends her plam is a little bit unnatural. Imo, it will be better if her fingers are pointing forward to the front, and I think the perspective of her head is a little bit off. Her eyes are a little bit flat.and I think it will be better if u can put some indications of ribcage on her.(It seems that her body is slightly twisted).Also,the hard shadow on her right arm is too dark,and the edge is too hard.
Btw,I think the blue light in her front will make some cast shadow of water on her body.

Other than those, I think u have done a really cool painting! The choice of color is great, and the water and cloud are simply awesome! Cant wait to see the final version!

[Malachi Maloney]

Great to see you posting some 2D work again, Steven.

Haven't seen you whip out something this tasty in the 2D department since that "Lumber-Jane" chick you did like a year or two ago.

Anyway, the colors are wonderful and the water is rendered beautifully. Any discrepancies in anatomy and such I'll just chalk up to stylization.

Excellent piece dude, really well done.

~M~
_________________
l i q u i d w e r x

[Gort]

yes - the radius of the arch doesn't seem to be compliant with the perspective; the side on the right cutting up into the top appears to high - especially when compared to the left side which appears too slanted; the whole arch appears a bit skewed to the receeding right.

Overall I think it's a fantastic piece of work! Great work for Photoshop!

_________________
- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[KOryH]

Great work as always Steven.
One thing that stands out to me is this. If you were going for a Maxfeild Parrish feel, I would recommend controlling the shadow color a little more. Meaning that it lack that translucent quality that he has in his work.
The background has it, but in the foreground you go to black and it seem a little incongruous.
Oh and the perspective on the far eye seems off.
Other than that it feels good to look at it.
_________________
**Have a Nice Day**
Kory Heinzen
Concept Artist/Production Illustrator
My Art Blog

[ChiaNi]

beautiful on every thing in the picture. Yes it remind me Maxfield Parish. The water just great magic. love your post. thank you.
_________________
Holly sprite

[Frost]

Great work Steven! Lovely.

[LoneWolf]

great work man

really nice to see ppl who have exellent skill on both 2d and 3d

did u use any refs?

[Steven Stahlberg]

Thanks! I just uploaded a new version, over-wrote the old one (sorry for the inconvenience, I tweak so much I just can't keep all the intermediate ones...) I worked on the arch, the raven, added a bit of hair under the hood, enlarged the nose, reddened the lips, pulled the cloth down a bit on her right, darkened the crease under the breasts as Luny suggested, added a shadow across her chest, and added a ruby necklace.
(The story so far: she wanted to have magical powers because of the euphoria she was told they can induce; the raven made a deal with her and gave her the necklace which gave her magic, in exchange for her life 20 years down the line, when her life force will be sucked back into the rubies. Please crit the story too if you like.)
Popeye, you may be right everything you mentioned, I added that shadow, and I'll think about the other points.
KOryH - I wasn't consciously going for Parrish, but I guess it's kinda in that direction. Still I wanted her to be darker and less colorful than the background, like she's turning her back on reality, towards something darker... don't know if it's working...
LoneWolf - no refs, except I accidentally noticed in my bathroom mirror once, before I switched on the light, my left elbow had an extra crease in it, which you can see now on her right elbow... hehe. maybe too much muscle for a woman though.
Here's the sketch I scanned:

[faeklone]

Looking at the updated pic, I'd have to say that the forearms, anad arms in particular are way to developed for a woman, especially considering the rest of the body. That crease on the forearm may exist on your body, but on femanine forms it may not exist.

The only other area that's bugging me, but I can't figure out how to fix it at the moment, is the area around the crotch draped in fabric. The actual flesh section doesn't look quite right, and I'm sure that you can fix it by playing with the leg. But I'm not too sure. On a second look, IT may be the reflected light from ahead of her that's making it look odd, also the shadow.

Other than that, I wish I had the time to play around with Photoshop more than I have. I love how the pic turned out.

[Ragnarok]

Imho, the sketch has a more alive feel than the picture. The pose seems more natural, the hands aren't on her body but on the air and her head is slightly forward, with the mouth half open, like she's trying to make magic, it's more active. Also the breast seem more natural in the sketch, in the finished drawing are a bit flat.

Anyways I'm being picky, the pic is really good, and the water effect is amazing!
_________________
"Ever forward, my darling wind." -Master Yuppa
Seigetsu

[Fred Flick Stone]

Beautiful, this is amazing. I really enjoy the power of the complementary colors in this piece. ANd her flesh tones are amazing. I dont think the breast line bothers me as much as its maybe really over pronounced, and the eyes go there as one key focal point. Its really the only area in the painting that has a line in it, and the lines jump out as a result. BUt its nothing troublesome. Color wise, I would maybe band a little more alizeron/cadmium red type colors into the warm bricks on the wall closest to her just to separate it from the background cloud value just a bit more. THe two colors have maybe just a bit too monotonous a value, making them both feel equally important in the image. But again, this is such a minor tweak, and its more a subjective call than anything else.

I really love the water, I would almost, because it is so focal, like to see a little motion in the water flowing just so it isnt so stark every where, it reminds me of a high speed photography moment, much like the Salvador Dali photos of himself tossing a cat into a stream of water flowing out of a bucket...anyway, getting deep here in teh resemblances...

Brilliant piece....
_________________
RJL

[jr]

love it, steve, very max parishy background.
_________________

[Tinusch]

I really don't see anything that could be improved here. I wouldn't tinker with it too much more, this is amazing as it stands now. Incredible job, by far your best yet.

[Steven Stahlberg]

Thanks all! Just did another update. This time:
Right shoulder & elbow less muscular
'Moved' arms away from breasts, tilted right hand up, moved head forward
Reddened/darkened orange bricks slightly
Reduced saturation on necklace
Moved navel & right breast & left arm
Lightened water, added 'light' FX from hands
Reduced and refined raven

Thanks Fred/Ron, good you're back!
I can't resist tinkering with it, I may do this in 3d later so I want to iron out all the wrinkles...

[bellie]

wow i really like it.. i love the use of the red sunlight.. reminds me of the covers for Kate Forsyth's books.. she's an Australian fantasy author.. you probably dont know her- just that she always had the arch with the stone and a black crow sitting in the corner for a lot of them its always nice to see your art.. keep it up!

[Anthony]

Great pic Steven, very nice! Things that jump out at me are
-The most detailed thing in the pic are the BG clouds. It makes the stone around her seem unfinished by comparison. Maybe add some texture in there?
-The bottom of her breasts, that sharp line seems weird. Its like they're molded using jello molds-like they don't flap under or hang at all, they just start right from the chest and come out at a sharp angle.
-Her stomach feels a little off, maybe the shading is smoothed in too much, a less smoothed, rounded approach might work?

Anyway, awesome image, keep it up!!
_________________
-Anthony
Carpe Carpem
http://www.anthonyfransella.com